Over the weekend I ran out of raw veggie burgers. That may not seem like a big deal, but raw veggie burgers are my go-to dinner meal during the week. So when I ran out, I knew that I was going to have to get a large batch of veggie burgers into the dehydrator ASAP if I had any hope of not going off the food rails this week.

One recipe in my favorite cookbook that I never seem to get exactly right (because I never have all of the correct ingredients) is Ani Phyo's recipe for Hemp Sun Burgers. Knowing that I would have to make burgers this week, I made it a point to pick up some of the odds and ends that would help me make enough of the raw food staples that I enjoy and that help me to ensure that I always have delicious and healthful meals and snacks at the ready, including the hemp seeds needed for Phyo's Hemp Sun Burgers.

Phyo's recipe is supposed to yield four burgers. They must be huge burgers, because whenever I use her veggie burger recipes they usually yield at least 18 burgers (two Excalibur drying trays full). Rather than making one recipe of veggie burgers, whenever I prepare raw food I try to make a double batch so that I am able to use the entire dehydrator and so that I can get the most out of the time that it takes to dehydrate food. So this morning, I began prepping the ingredients that I needed to make 36 Hemp Sun Burgers (four Excalibur trays full). I thought that I was in trouble for sure when I added four times the amount of water that Phyo's recipe calls for (her recipe calls for one half a cup of water), but the recipe actually turned out just fine!

Here's what I did. First I combined two cups of sunflower seeds and one cup of flax seeds in my food processor and ground them into a flour. To the sunflower seed and flax seed flour mixture, I then chopped and added: one half a head of celery, one small yellow onion, one large bell pepper, one teaspoon of sea salt, four teaspoons of dried oregano, one half a cup of hemp seeds, and two cups of water. I then pulsed these ingredients together in the food processor until the mixture was reasonably smooth and used a tablespoon to scoop the burger mixture onto four Excalibur drying trays. The burgers then went into the Excalibur dehydrator where I dehydrated them for one hour at 135 degrees and then for an additional 3-6 hours at 115 degrees, flipping the burgers periodically to ensure that they are dehydrated throughout.

Finally, I freeze all but four to six of the burgers, and take them out of the freezer as I need them. I serve the burgers on one quarter of a large Ezekial Sprouted Grain Tortilla, with one romaine leaf, and homemade mustard or Phyo's Aioli Mayonnaise. Enjoy (I know I will)!

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Alix Tindall, is a journalist and a lawyer. She is also a former fat kid. Today she is an avid runner, reader, and writer. Most importantly, she is dedicated to (and completely obsessed with) eating well and helping those around her to do the same.